Judge denies double jeopardy claims in Ga. socialite slaying case

<p>A Superior Court judge has denied a request to throw out murder charges against a millionaire businessman accused of hiring someone to kill his wife, officials said Wednesday.</p><p>Judge John J. Goger's denial of the defense's double jeopardy motion in the James Sullivan case was issued Tuesday, said Erik Friedly, a spokesman for the Fulton County District Attorney's Office.</p><p>The decision, if upheld, means Sullivan's June 15 trial will go forward. Defense lawyer Don Samuel said Wednesday he will likely appeal the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court.</p><p>Sullivan, 63, could face the death penalty if convicted of murder in the Jan. 16, 1987 death of his socialite wife, Lita. The 35-year-old woman was fatally shot at her Atlanta home by a man carrying a box of pink roses.</p><p>Prosecutors say Sullivan paid a hit man $25,000 to kill his wife because he feared losing money and a Palm Beach, Fla. mansion in the couple's divorce.</p><p>Related federal charges against Sullivan were thrown out in 1992 a few days after the federal trial had begun.</p><p>Defense lawyers had argued that the state charges, filed in 1998, should be thrown out because they violate Sullivan's right not to be tried twice for the same crime. They also argued that the state's case amounts to a "sham prosecution" because, they argued, it was the state's intention and the government's intention all along to bring the current charges if the federal charges failed.</p><p>But county prosecutors argued that the trial should go forward because the federal case alleged Sullivan made telephone calls for the intention of killing his wife, while the state case alleges he actually killed her. They said there is "absolutely no evidence" that the federal government had influence over the state's decision to seek murder charges in the case.</p><p>Samuel said he was disappointed by the judge's ruling.</p><p>"If the trial goes forward, we will defend it like any criminal case," Samuel said. "We won it once, we will win it again."</p><p>In other motions, the defense also is challenging the validity of the grand jury pool that was used to select the panel that ultimately indicted Sullivan on state murder charges in 1998. The defense argues the pool was improper because there is no evidence that any Hispanics were on the panel.</p><p>The defense also is challenging a Texas woman's identification of Sullivan as the man who paid cash to the alleged hit man before the murder. Those motions are still pending.</p><p>Sullivan fled the country around the time of his 1998 state indictment. He was arrested in Thailand on July 1, 2002, and returned to Atlanta last March.</p><p>The alleged triggerman, Phillip A. "Tony" Harwood, pleaded guilty in February 2003 to voluntary manslaughter in Superior Court and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In court papers filed in recent months, he has denied killing Lita Sullivan.</p>